CUSTOMERS at the Fat Cat can get the best of both worlds by enjoying a pint and a takeaway without having to leave the comfort of its surroundings.

Staff at the Butt Road pub provide the menus for nearby eateries, the plates and knives and forks and the food is delivered straight to them.

Landlord James Keatley bought the pub, formerly the Royal, with his mum Dawn in 2006 and set about completely gutting and refurbishing it over a number of months.

It officially opened with its new name in September of that year and James says pretty much since then they have offered the option to customers on certain nights of the week of enjoying their chosen Indian or Chinese takeaway in the bar.

James says: “The customers still really like it, they are even pretty good at scraping off their plates at the end.

“We put the menus out and the plates and then they just sort it out from there. It gives them the chance to have a takeaway with a pint but feel like they are eating out as well.

“We also do our own food on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday and we are really trying to build on that now more people are coming to work in the offices in the buildings opposite and we are getting more lunch time trade.

“It is good quality bar food and we use butchers meat which the customers really like.

“We did food on a regular basis and then there were less people working in the area so we cut back on it but we have found it is getting busier again and we are aiming to extend it in the near future,” adds James who dad also owns and runs a Fat Cat pub in Ipswich.

“It is a different business but we have always used a similar concept.”

The Fat Cat in Colchester is particularly popular with real ale fans because it is one of very few that serves it straight from the barrel.

“I do think one of the things that really sets us apart from other places in the town is the fact we serve ale straight from the barrel.

“It means it is in its purest form because it has not gone through any pipes.

“Obviously the pubs that do serve it that one will have clean lines but a lot of those who are real ale fans say it is just the best way to drink it.”

When it is holding one of its regular beer festivals as many as 20 different ales are on offer, he explains.

“But we can have up to ten at a time for people to choose from and we always have three regulars and will regularly change the other seven so people get lots of choice,” he says.

Another draw for regulars are the pubs Sunday roasts which are offered on a seasonal basis from September until April.

The meat is locally sourced, from nearby Wick Farm, and prepared on the premises.

“We are packed out every week for them but we have found they are less popular in the summer which is why we tend to just do them from September to April,” explains James.

A team of ten staff help James and Dawn run the pub which later this year celebrates a decade of business.

“We have had to adapt over that time to changes in the town and what other places are and aren’t offering but that is just something you have to do,” he says.